Connections Symposium 2020 Program

CONNECTIONS
October 16-17, 2020
AIRG’s 3rd International Symposium
(virtual edition)

Welcome to the 3rd International Artful Inquiry Symposium (virtual edition).
On behalf of the Artful Inquiry Research Group (AIRG) in the Faculty of Education at McGill University, it is with great pleasure that
we extend a warm welcome to the presenters and attendees of the third International Artful Inquiry Symposium. Over the two days
artists, researchers, educators, and practitioners will explore the connections, possibilities, and influences of the arts in educational
research. We will get a chance to experience the artful connections created by individuals and communities, both separately and
together. We hope you connect with one another and have a meaningful and enjoyable experience.

Sincerely,
The Symposium Co-Chairs
Mindy R. Carter, PhD
Sara Hashem, PhD
Hala Mreiwed, MPPPA, PhD Candidate

AIRG SYMPOSIUM 2020
The AIRG International Symposium is an interdisciplinary forum for sharing scholarship, practices, and research on artful inquiry and
methods in higher education. The 2020 virtual edition of the AIRG Symposium will include a select number of session that artfully
explore pressing issues of our times. Scholars, researchers, students, artists, and practitioners will showcase the role and impact of
arts-based practices in creating meaningful connections.
This year’s program is organized in a way that allows for 10min breaks between every session. We encourage you to step away
from the screen and take a physical and mental break. “Zoom fatigue” is a thing and you need to exercise self-care.
In keeping with AIRG’s sense of community, all names in this program are listed in alphabetical order (either by first or last name).

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Symposium Chairs: Mindy R. Carter, Sara Hashem, & Hala Mreiwed
Program: Lidoly Chávez Guerra (Program Co-Chair) & Sara Hashem (Program Chair)
Communication: Sara Hashem & Hala Mreiwed
Logistical support: Darshan Daryanani
A special thank you to DISE Faculty Committee members: Claudia Mitchell & Sheryl Smith-Gilman.
A big thank you to the volunteers, especially :
Nesa Bandarchian, Marta Cotrim, Jen Hinkkala, Mia Homsi, Lin Li, Jax Stendel, Natalie Tacuri, & Dan Wu.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Friday, October 16, 2020

Saturday, October 17, 2020

PRESENTERS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Adrian M. Downey, PhD (Mount Saint Vincent University)
Adrian M. Downey is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University. He is
Mi’kmaq with family ties in the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation. His research interests are in the arts, spirituality,
Indigenous knowledges, anti-racist education, and social justice as expressed in curriculum theory.

Adriana Garcia-Cruz (Diversité Artistique Montréal, DAM)
Growing up in a very modest family in Colombia, Adriana understood very early on that human beauty comes from its
complexity: fragility behind strength, courage behind fear, anguish behind certainty. An immigrant to Canada in 2006,
she refined her photographic technique thanks to the inspiration she found from artists like Irving Penn and Ruven
Afanador and she began her artistic career.
For Adriana, to photograph the human is to access the invisible that hides in each of us. She engages in the depths
of the soul and celebrates the intimate. In 2017, she received the research and creation CALQ* grant for her work
"Memory and Oblivion" where she offers us an intimate vision of objects and their value for connecting different
generations.
* CALQ: Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec

Adrienne Boulton, PhD (Kwantlen Polytechnic University)
Adrienne Boulton is an Instructor in Educational Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She completed her MA
and PhD in Curriculum Studies from the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include arts-based
forms of educational research, pre-service teacher education, and inquiry.

Alexia Buono, PhD (SUNY at Brockport)
Alexia Buono, PhD is an interdisciplinary dancer, choreographer, scholar and educator. She teaches dance education
courses at SUNY at Brockport. Her research interests include somatic pedagogy, bodily restorative justice, early
childhood education, arts-based research methods, and systemic reform. Somatic dance traditions, such as
Bartenieff Fundamentals and contact improvisation, inform her pedagogy and choreography. She disseminates her
research for an audience of scholars, educators, and dancers through community workshops, peer-reviewed
publications, professional development, dance performances, and performative conference presentations. She has
choreographed and performed with Torn Space Theatre, Anne Burnidge Dance, Center Dance, and Brockport
College.

Amanda Claudia Wager, PhD (Vancouver Island University)
Amanda Claudia Wager, PhD (VIU) is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Community Research in Arts, Culture &
Education and Professor at Vancouver Island University, BC. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she practices
community-engaged research, pedagogy, and scholarship that encompasses literacies, languages, and the arts with
local youth, families, and communities. Her current youth-led research explores the use of art as a form of language
learning, leadership and advocacy work. Her recent publications include Engaging Youth in Critical Arts Pedagogies
and Creative Research for Social Justice, Art as a Way of Talking and The Reading Turn-Around with Emergent
Bilinguals.

Amélie Lemieux, PhD (Mount Saint Vincent University)
Amélie Lemieux’s research interests include maker education and cross-disciplinary literacies informed by
posthumanist perspectives. A Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal Recipient (Quebec) for academic excellence and
community engagement, she received SSHRC and FRQSC funding for her combined work in makerspace research,
multimodality, arts-informed research and literacies with children, adolescents and teachers.

Anita Hiralaal, PhD (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Anita Hiralaal is a lecturer in Accounting at the School of Education, Indumiso Campus, Durban University of
Technology. She has a Ph D in Teacher Development Studies from the University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal. Anita has been
involved in teacher education for many years and enjoys teaching Accounting. As part of her doctoral studies, she
adopted an arts-based self-study methodological approach and used many arts-based research approaches in her
study. This prompted her to incorporate the arts into her Accounting Pedagogy teaching with excellent results. Anita
has some novel, exciting and non-conventional ideas to share about the arts in education.

Annika Notér Hooshidar, PlP (University of the Arts, Stockholm)
Annika is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Dance and Dance interpretation. Her research interest concerns which
bodies and what kind of stories are being shown and told in the area of dance. Who is the dancer/ teacher/
choreographer? In the area of teaching and creating, an expanded concept of choreography can open space for new
ways of knowing and learning.
Annika is currently involved in a 3 year research project that investigates artistic development, power relations and
agency in an interdisciplinary process with artists with different abilities.

Antonio Starnino, MA Student (Concordia University)
Antonio Starnino is a Masters student in the Graduate Program in Human Systems Intervention, Department of
Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University and a Service Designer/Partner with Studio Wé.

Arianna Garcia-Fialdini, PhD Candidate (Concordia University)
Arianna Garcia-Fialdini, PhD Candidate in Art Education, Concordia University. Virtual artist/educator, working
predominantly in paint and print media. Garcia-Fialdini’s research/studio practice concentrates on translating diverse
oral histories of hopes/justice movements into multi-modal images that agitate and inspire.
Working closely with issues raising awareness on social change/gender violence, she explores the conditions of
women, immigrants and refugee claimants while observing and commenting on social realities.
Her teaching and studio practice aims to serve as an alternative platform from which to reach and project
marginalized voices and stories.
Professional webpage: www.garfiart.com

Ashley Do Nascimento, PhD Student, (University of Western Ontario)
Ashley Do Nascimento is a PhD student. ’Her research interests focus on how children/youth understand the
environment in the face of 21st century climate change. Do Nascimento utilises posthumanist and feminist new
materialist frameworks to research with youth, paying particular attention to polluted waters.

Ashwani Kumar, PhD (Mount Saint Vincent University)
Ashwani Kumar is an Associate Professor at Mount Saint Vincent University, where he teaches and conducts
research in fields of curriculum studies, holistic education, and philosophy of education. He is the author of
Curriculum As Meditative Inquiry (2013) and Curriculum in International Contexts: Understanding Colonial,
Ideological, and Neoliberal Influences (2019).

Boyd white, PhD (McGill University)
Initially trained as a painter and printmaker, Boyd’s current research investigates aesthetic engagement as an avenue
to teacher self-identity and social responsibility.

C. H. Gonzalez, PhD (Austin Peay State University)
Dr. C H Gonzalez, PhD., an assistant professor of Teaching and Learning at Austin Peay State University, has
worked with diverse populations of pre-service teachers, public school students, and out-of-school youths for nearly
two decades. He teaches educational methods, pedagogy, and education foundation courses.
He has published research on multimodality, teacher education, and implementing digital video into ELA classrooms.
His current work centers on discovering ways to encourage and support teachers to be culturally relevant and
uncovering ways to develop new culturally sustaining pedagogies. He has been part of over twenty educational
conference presentations.

Candace Amarante, PhD (Author and Playwright)
Candace Amarante is an author and playwright. Her recent works include the play The Ugly Ones (co-written; 2020
Geordie Theatre Fest), and the children’s book The Pheasant’s Tale or ... was it its Tail? (Green Bamboo
Publishing 2017). Candace has a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, NY.

Catherine Nadon, PhD (L’Université du Québec en Outaouais)
Catherine Nadon est professeure en didactique des arts visuels à l’Université du Québec en Outaouais. Détentrice
d’un baccalauréat et d’une maitrise en histoire de l’art (UQAM) ainsi que d’un baccalauréat et d’un doctorat en
science en sciences de l’éducation (Université d’Ottawa), ses intérêts de recherche traitent de l’enseignementapprentissage
de l’expérience esthétique, principalement celle de l’art contemporain. Elle s’intéresse également au
paradigme postmoderne en éducation ainsi qu’au rapport de l’artiste contemporain avec les milieux scolaires. Avant
d’oeuvrer comme professeure, elle a enseigné l’histoire de l’art au niveau collégial (Cégep de l’Outaouais, La Cité) et
a été responsable des services éducatifs dans un centre d’art contemporain. Elle a aussi été commissaire pour
quelques expositions, notamment lors de la seconde édition de Orange, l’événement d’art actuel de Saint-Hyacinthe
(2006).

Celeste Snowber, PhD (Simon Fraser University)
Celeste Snowber, PhD is dancer, poet, writer and award-winning educator who is a Professor in the Faculty of
Education at Simon Fraser University. Celeste interweaves multidisciplinary forms in her performances and published
works and attention to embodied ways of inquiry has been central to Snowber’s scholarly and artistic work for over
two decades. She is the author of Embodied inquiry: Writing, living and being through the body as well as two
collections of poetry. She creates site-specific performances of dance and poetry in the natural world and can be
found at www.celestesnowber.com

Chetna Mehrotra (Theatre of the Oppressed)
Chetna Mehrotra | Chetnaa is an Applied Theatre Practitioner, a Drama Based Learning facilitator, a TO (Theatre of
the Oppressed) practitioner, Playback Theatre practitioner, and a Theatre in Education (TIE) practitioner. She has a
vision to take these forms of art-based facilitation to workspaces, open learning spaces, classes and training rooms,
thereby creating a culture of expression, acceptance and love between people.

Chris Cook, PhD Student (University of British Columbia)
Christopher Cook is a therapist, playwright, and theatre creator, and is passionate about using theatre as a
therapeutic, learning, and research tool. Chris’ plays include Quick Bright Things (Persephone Theatre, 2017) and
Voices UP! (UBC Learning Exchange, 2017), a collaborative creation with community members in Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside. Chris is currently completing a Ph.D. at UBC, focusing on the intersections between mental
health and research-based theatre.

Claudia Mitchell, PhD (McGill University)
Claudia Mitchell is a Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies, Faculty of
Education, McGill University, Canada, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-
Natal, South Africa. Her research interests focus on participatory arts-based methodologies, girlhood studies, teacher
identity, and the prevention of gender-based violence with Indigenous girls and young women in South Africa and
Canada, and across various countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, West Africa, and East Asia Pacific.
 

Daisy Pillay, PhD (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Daisy Pillay (Ph.D., University of KwaZulu-Natal), is an Associate Professor in the School of Education, University of
KwaZulu-Natal. Her teaching, research, and scholarship focus on Self-Reflexive methodologies, Arts-based
research, Teacher’s lives, Teacher Identities, and Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She co-authored an
edited book (Pithouse-Morgan, Pillay &Mitchell, 2019), titled, Memory Mosaics: Researching Teacher Professional
Learning Through Artful Memory-work. Since 2019, she leads a 3-year Human and Social Dynamics in Development
Research Grant Project titled, Object Inquiry for Social Cohesion in Public Higher Education: Exploring Academic
Identities and Fostering Shared Values Across Diverse Contexts.”
 

Diane Conrad, PhD (University of Alberta)
Diane Conrad is Professor of Drama/Theatre Education at the University of Alberta and a science fiction fan. She has
a BFA in creative writing from UBC as well as a BEd, MEd and PhD in Education. She has worked in educational
contexts as a student or teacher for most of her life. She is author of Athabasca’s Going Unmanned: An ethnodrama
about incarcerated youth (Sense, 2012); co-editor of Creating together: Participatory, community-based and
collaborative arts practices and scholarship across Canada (2015, Wilfred Laurier University Press) and Teachers
and teaching on stage and on screen: Dramatic depictions (2019, Intellect).

Effiam Yung (University of British Columbia)
Effiam Yung is currently employed at the Department of Language & Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education at
UBC, in the role of Web Communications Specialist. He also works closely with the Digital Literacy Centre team on
projects such as Singling and PhoneMe in varying capacity. When not working, he enjoys walking in trails and
thinking of ways to improve Singling.

Elinor Vettraino (Team Academy)
Elinor Vettraino has, since 2019, been the Programme Director and Head Coach of the Team Academy inspired
Business Enterprise Development programmes at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. Her journey to this point has
been organic having spent the last 10 years developing the concepts of team coaching and the use of applied theatre
and storytelling in team learning practice. She considers myself an accidental academic, and a curious traveller in the
world of education.

Elizabeth Yomantas, PhD (Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA)
Elizabeth Yomantas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Teacher Education at Pepperdine
University in Malibu, CA. She teaches courses in the teacher preparation program where she strives to design
learning experiences focused on inclusion, equity, and culturally responsive pedagogy. Elizabeth’s research interests
include allyship, indigenous Fijian education, and culturally responsive experiential education. She enjoys conducting
arts based research, particularly narrative inquiry.

Elsy Zavarce, PhD (University of Zulia)
Elsy Zavarce is a multidisciplinary visual artist, interdisciplinary researcher, and an emeritus professor at the
University of Zulia. Born in Canada, grew up in Venezuela. She has many research publications, and several funded
research, some show her interest in the comprehension of contemporary art other publications demonstrate her
pedagogical approach as a founder of the Graphic Design School of Zulia University. Elsy has a background as a
professor of Architecture and Graphic Design in Venezuela. As a Ph.D. student at Concordia University, she is
interested in researching how communities of practice can help build a sense of belonging, resilience, and
resistance?

Emily Diane Sprowls, PhD Student (McGill University)
Emily is a science educator that loves getting outdoors to facilitate student-driven learning about the environment.
Before starting her PhD in Science Education, she spent 15 years learning alongside youth as an environmental
science teacher in the USA. She currently enjoys coaching teachers in professional learning communities, and she
collaborates with microbiologists at Université de Montréal on citizen science projects. Her doctoral research
examines the impacts of collaborative learning among teachers, scientists, and youth as they engage in
environmental inquiry, with the goal of modeling new ways of learning for youth-led environmental change and
sustainability.

Eric Racette (Reiki Practitioner)
Eric Racette has worked in architecture and design. He has Integrated sacred geometry, spiritual metaphors and holy
semiotics in his furniture collection Eidolon. He is passionate about exploring the relationships existing within human
experience. He now has a Reiki practice (Reiki Rituals) and writes a blog dedicated to connections and spirituality
with a non-dualistic approach.

Esteban Morales, PhD Student (University of British Columbia)
Esteban Morales is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British
Columbia. He holds a Master’s degree in Educational Technology and Learning Design from Simon Fraser University
and a second MA in Transmedia Communication from EAFIT University, Colombia. His research interests include
critical digital literacies, peace education and social media.

Frans Kruger, PhD (University of the Free State, South Africa)
Frans Kruger, PhD (University of the Free State, South Africa); Frans Kruger is a senior lecturer in philosophy and
policy studies in education at the University of the Free State, South Africa. His research interests include
posthumanist pedagogies, post-qualitative inquiry, African philosophy of education, and ecojustice education.

Garine Palandjian, PhD Candidate (Arizona State University)
Garine Palandjian is a PhD Candidate in Educational Policy and Evaluation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at
Arizona State University. Through a decolonial lens, Garine’s research focuses on redefining education and identities
through post-Soviet and post-socialist Armenian education transformations, and memories of bordering practices and
experiences. Using a critical educational ethnographic approach, her dissertation examines how (re)thinking borders
can help redefine education and identities in more inclusive ways, recognizing the plurality of education visions and
the possible futures that they hold.

George Belliveau, PhD (University of British Columbia)
George Belliveau is Professor of Theatre/Drama Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His
research has been published in various arts and theatre education research journals and books. He has written six
books, including his latest co-edited one with Graham Lea, Contact!Unload: Military Veterans, Trauma, and
Research-based Theatre (UBC Press, 2020). He is a professionally trained actor, and has participated in over 100
theatre productions as an actor, director, or playwright.

Inbanathan Naicker, DEd (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Inbanathan Naicker, DEd, is an Associate Professor in Educational Leadership at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
He has published a number of journal articles and book chapters; has presented papers at several national and
international conferences and has guest edited several journal special issues. He recently co-edited a special edition
of the Journal of Education titled, Exploring possibilities through methodological inventiveness in self-reflexive
educational research. He has recently completed co-editing a book titled Object Medleys: Interpretive Possibilities for
Educational Research.

Iowyth (ne Cassandra) Witteman, MA Student (Lakehead University)
Iowyth (ne Cassandra) Witteman is a Masters student at Lakehead University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from
Concordia University in Montreal. Iowyth has over a decade and a half rooted in grassroots activism, community
facilitation, and arts-based practice which they use to inform their current pedagogy. Their research interests lie in
environmental education and outsider educational spaces as well as body-based ways of knowing.

Jeff M. Poulin, MA (Creative Generation)
Jeff M. Poulin is the founder of Creative Generation, working to inspire, connect, and amplify the work of
organizations and individuals committed to cultivating the creative capacities of young people. As a recognized
leader, he previously led a national program, where he advanced local, state, and federal policies supportive of
equitable access to arts learning throughout the U.S. A seasoned educator, Jeff teaches at several universities and
trains 10,000+ people annually around the globe. Jeff is a tap dancer by trade and continues to mentor young
dancers in the U.S. and in the U.K.

Jeffrey Paul Ansloos, PhD (University of Toronto)
Jeffrey Paul Ansloos, PhD, (UofT) C.Psych. is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Critical Studies in Indigenous
Health and Social Action on Suicide, Assistant Professor of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, and Chair of the
Indigenous Education Network at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. His
research focuses on social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental dimensions of health, as well examines
community-based and systems-level change processes needed to advance social and health equity, with a particular
focus on Indigenous youth. Jeffrey is the author of the book The Medicine of Peace: Indigenous Youth Resisting
Violence and Decolonizing Healing.

Jennifer Wicks, PhD Candidate (Concordia University)
Jennifer Wicks is a PhD candidate Art Education at Concordia University. Informed and influenced by her multidisciplinary
art and teaching practice, Jennifer uses collaborative and art based methodologies in the realm of post
qualitative inquiry. She is currently exploring curriculum development, the co-construction of knowledge, transnational
collaborations, new materiality, a/r/tography, and the multi-sensory to better understand impacts on learning and
creative development in teachers, students, researchers and artists.

Joanne Murdoch, BA (Concordia University)
My family moved from Frobisher Bay, where I was born, in order to help found a cooperative movement for the
Nunavik communities, fostering financial independence through the promotion and sale of their art. I became an art
teacher and continue to promote the importance of art in society. After having three wonderful children, one of which
has special needs, I shifted my focus and worked as a resource teacher. I use many art forms to help all my students
reach their full potential. I am currently working as a French immersion teacher in an elementary school that
embraces the STEAM approach. Art remains at the foundation of everything I teach.

Joël Thibeault, PhD (University of Ottawa)
Joël Thibeault est professeur régulier à la Faculté d’éducation de l’Université d’Ottawa et professeur auxiliaire à la
Faculté d’éducation de l’Université de Regina. Dans le cadre de sa recherche, il s'intéresse notamment à
l'enseignement et à l'apprentissage de la grammaire en contexte francophone minoritaire, à l'utilisation de la
littérature de jeunesse dans l'enseignement des conventions linguistiques et à la didactique intégrée du français et de
l'anglais.

Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, PhD (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan is a Professor of Education. Her scholarship is in the field of professional learning, with a
specific focus on better understanding and supporting teachers as self-directed and self-developing learners.
Through the self-reflexive methodologies of self-study research, narrative inquiry, and autoethnography, her work
documents and theorises how teachers can gain vital insights into their professional selves and practices – with
critical implications for personal-professional growth and social transformation. Using arts-based, bricolage, dialogic,
memory-work, and transdisciplinary approaches, Kathleen collaborates across contexts and continents to enact and
document methodological inventiveness in professional learning research.

Kathryn Ricketts, PhD (University of Regina)
Kathryn Ricketts, PhD is an Associate Professor and Chair of Dance, University of Regina as well as the Director of
Professional Development and Field Experience in the Faculty of Education. She is also the co president of the
Canadian Association For 40 years Ricketts has been researching and practicing dance and visual arts and has
articulated the methodology Embodied Poetic Narrative. Her work is focused on developing ‘voice’ through
performance with vulnerable populations using artifacts and personal narratives. She runs The Listening Lab, a visual
and performing arts ‘incubator’ and presents exhibitions and performances in her loft in the John Deere Tractor
Building

Kedrick James, PhD (University of British Columbia)
Kedrick James is Director of the Digital Literacy Centre, Associate Professor of Teaching, and Deputy Head of the
Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC. Current research projects include Singling, for text
sonification, and PhoneMe, a website www.phonemeproject.com and mobile app for creating and experiencing usergenerated
place-based poetry and spoken word. As a poet, he ponders voice in the void between nature and noise.
As a recording artist, his recent releases can be found at kedrickjames.bandcamp.com. As a scholar, his work also
has a virtual background.

Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, PhD (University of Victoria)
Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta (PhD, University of Manchester). Currently, she is working on her SSHRC Partnership
Development Grant and Insight Development Grant on Coast Salish language revitalization through theatre. Her
theatre facilitation includes working with children in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, young people in Brazilian
favelas, women in rural areas of Cambodia, adolescents in Nicaragua, and students with special needs in The
Netherlands. Kirsten is an assistant professor at the University of Victoria, BC.

Laen Hershler (Performing Artist)
Laen Hershler is a performing artist and expert facilitator of creative processes across professional, artistic and
academic contexts. He has vast experience working with teachers, researchers, artists, and business people using
theatre for both social impact and personal development. Since 2011, he has been a reoccurring sessional instructor
at the Creative Studies Faculty at UBC (Kelowna) and the Education Faculty at UBC (Vancouver). Most recently,
Laen has devoted considerable time to creative practice and evaluation in the field of Research-based Theatre.

Leila Refahi, MA (Concordia University)
Leila Refahi, Master(Concordia university); Refahi works with painting, installation and digital media to create
participatory art experiences. Her work focuses on environmental issues and endangered animals. Refahi graduated
from the Art and Architecture University of Tehran in 2010 with Master's degrees in painting. In 2011, she was invited
to teach at the same university.
Refahi has presented five solo exhibitions and participated in more than 60 national and international group
exhibitions. Refahi has studied socially engaged art and its impact on raising awareness about environmental issues.
The interactions formed between participants, the artist, and artwork is the most significant part of her practice.

Linda Handiak (Vanguard School)
Linda Handiak teaches ELA, History and Contemporary World at Vanguard School. She stays current by attending
conferences and participating in research projects. In 2013, Ms. Handiak was part of an LCEEQ pilot project
implementing differentiated instruction through Layered Curriculum. In 2016, she participated in The Art Gallery of
Ontario’s summer institute, where attendees met indigenous artists and curators and developed related instructional
material together. Last year, she and her senior students presented at a UNICEF sponsored conference on the topic
of child-friendly cities. Her research interests include differentiation, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Education
and Literacy across the curriculum.

Linthuja Nadarajah, MA Student (Concordia University)
Linthuja Nadarajah is a Masters student in the Graduate Program in Human Systems Intervention, Department of
Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University and Assistant Prospect Researcher in University Advancement at
Concordia University.

Lungile Masinga, PhD (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Lungile Masinga, PhD is a Senior lecturer in Curriculum and Education Studies and has also worked in the Gender
and Education discipline at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa. Her academic work focuses on
gender and sexuality education. Methodologically, her work has contributed to scholarship on collaborative memorywork,
oral storytelling with teachers and Self-study research enquiry. She is also a member of the Self-Reflexive Methodologies Special Interest Group of the South African Educational Research Association.

Marguerite Müller, PhD (University of the Free State, South Africa)
Marguerite Müller, PhD (University of the Free State, South Africa); Marguerite Müller is a senior lecturer in the
School of Education Studies, Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State. She holds a BA in Fine Arts,
PGCE, Masters of Education, and PhD in Higher Education studies. From 2006 to 2011, she worked as a teacher
and lecturer in South Korea. At present, she teaches within the discipline of Curriculum Studies with a specific focus
on socially just and anti-oppressive pedagogies. In her research, she employs arts-based methodologies to explore
issues of educator identity and subjectivity in the higher education space.

Maria Ezcurra, PhD (Artist and Art Facilitator)
Maria Ezcurra (MFA, PhD) has participated in numerous exhibits worldwide and worked as an artist-in-residence and
course lecturer in the Faculty of Education at McGill, also facilitating the McGill Art Hive and other community
initiatives. Her research involves participatory art practices; dress and the social construction of gender; and,
migration.

María Verónica Machado Penso, PhD (Universidad de la Costa)
Maria Veronica Machado is an Architect and Ph.D. in Architecture from the Universidad del Zulia with a Master’s
degree in Advanced Technologies for Architectural Construction from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Currently, She is a professor and researcher at the Universidad de la Costa, teaches at the Doctoral Program in
Architecture at the Universidad del Zulia, and participates as Coordinator for the Biennial of Architecture of
Maracaibo. Machado writes scientific articles for journals. She has been a guest speaker for international events at
the IBERO University and the UPC. During 2017, she attended a residency in arts at the Casa Vecina headquarters
of the Mexico City Historical Center Foundation. She has received several awards such as the Silver Medal at the
Miami Architecture Biennale in 2001 and the mention of honor at the Maracaibo Art Biennial in 2011.

Mariam Ugarte, MA (Concordia University)
Trilingual, graduated from nursing school in 1989. As an obstetrical nurse for 12 years, I loved helping women give
birth. After obtaining a Bachelors’ in Education in 2006, I began teaching Nursing at a vocational school. I received a
Masters in Human Systems Intervention in 2017 from Concordia University after which I facilitated various workshops
in rural hospitals for a Spanish foundation - RDT(Rural Development Trust) in India, where I used arts-based
methods to motivate, empower and provide an experiential learning opportunity for participants, my latest workshop
was to share the WHO guidelines on Humanizing Labour and delivery this Nov-Dec 2019.

Maryam Bagheri Nesami, MA (University of Auckland)
Maryam holds a B.A. in Cultural and Artistic Management (2007, Tehran) and M.A. in Art Studies (Comparative
Mythology, 2010, Tehran). She is an independent performance artist based in Auckland who is developing a artistic
doctoral research about ‘politics and poetics of solo performance’ at the University of Auckland. Coming from the
underground dance community in Iran, and performing and living as an undisciplined Middle Eastern dancer outside
Iran, Maryam has been questioning the conventional frames, homogenizing gazes, categorizations and reductionist
definitions and these contextualize her practice(s) of freedom. Her creative practice and research focus on inclusion,
non-violent resistance, strategic negotiations, and micro-politics.

Mindy R. Carter, PhD (McGill University)
Mindy R. Carter, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill
University, Canada. Her research focuses on teacher identity, and on using the arts to foster culturally responsible
and socially just pedagogies. Carter’s “CREATE: Creativity Research in Education using Artful inquiry for
societal Transformation and intercultural Exchange” research program has received Fonds de recherche du
Quebec (2015–2018) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funding (2017–2020). She is currently
the Vice-President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education's Curriculum Studies special interest group and
the Chair of the Artful Inquiry Research Group (AIRG) at McGill (2020).

Mitchell McLarnon, PhD Candidate (McGill University)
Mitchell McLarnon is a PhD candidate, gardener, beekeeper and lecturer at McGill University. His teaching and
research interests include social and environmental justice, homelessness, institutional ethnography, participatory
visual methodologies, garden-based learning and environmental education.
Natalie LeBlanc, PhD (University of Victoria)
Natalie LeBlanc is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Victoria. She is a visual artist and art educator
whose research examines how conceptual art practices inform artistic and arts-based research methodologies.

Neydalid Molero, DEA (University of Zulia)
Neydalid Molero is an Associate Professor at the Experimental Art Faculty of the University of Zulia. She was a
professor at the Cecilio Acosta University, the Julio Arraga National School of Art, and the Carlos Parra Bernal State
School of Art. She is a plastic artist, active since 1983. Her creative research is developed by integrating
interdisciplinary experiences. She is a researcher in Art Theory and has published the book "Identidades Corporales
Alternativas: Perspectivas de la autorrepresentación en el Arte contemporáneo", in the research collection of
Universidad Cecilio Acosta. She has also published several refereed articles in her area. She has extensive
experience in contemporary museography montage equipment. she forms a curatorial team with Elsy Zavarce and
María Verónica Machado, carrying out the exhibition "Cuerpo en Cuestión" in 2018 at the Museo de Arte
Contemporáneo del Zulia (Venezuela) and in 2020, they develop the project Cuerpos Confinados (endorsed by the
MACZUL of Venezuela and the Universidad de la Costa, of Colombia).

Paul J. Meighan, PhD Candidate (McGill University)
Paul is a Gàidheal (Scottish Gael) from Glasgow, Scotland and a PhD candidate in Educational Studies at the
Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University. Paul has an extensive background in translating
and teaching languages (English as a Second Language and for Academic Purposes, Italian, Spanish and French)
internationally since 2001. These experiences have granted him the opportunity to learn several languages and
experience diverse ways of knowing, being, teaching, and learning. Paul’s community-led, SSHRC-funded research
will aim to explore the connections between Indigenous language revitalization, place-based, Traditional Ecological
Knowledge (TEK) and decolonizing technology.

Paul Zanazanian, PhD (McGill University)
Dr. Paul Zanazanian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill
University, Canada. His research explores the workings of historical consciousness in the development of individual
and We-subject identities, with a focus on formal and informal school settings. His work examines practitioners’
historical sense-making and its impact on their self-awareness and agency, informing their social posture/
positionalites in their roles as teachers and community educators.

Rachel Horst, PhD Student (University of British Columbia)
Rachel Horst is a SSHRC-funded PhD student interested in exploring narrative inquiry as a methodology for
engaging with future potentiality. She is interested in digital literacy, makerspace technologies, computational
thinking, and post humanist epistemologies. She writes fiction, poetry, and creates digital and analogue media of all
kinds.

Sara Hashem, PhD (McGill University)
Sara Hashem, PhD is the co-founder of the Artful Inquiry Research Group (AIRG) at McGill University. She is an
educator and a culture management specialist with more than 17 years of international experience in educational
program development and museum management. Sara lectures at McGill University and is in charge of the
development of the McGill Art Hive. Academically, her work is grounded in arts-based educational research methods,
museum studies, teacher education, technology in education, curriculum studies, arts education, and arts leadership.
Sara is also a trained visual artist who dabbles with drawing, painting, and photography.

Sara Schroeter, PhD (University of Regina)
Sara is an Assistant Professor (Drama Education) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, where she
teaches drama, arts, and anti-racist education classes in French and English. For twenty years, she has worked as
an informal educator with community and non-governmental organizations and as a drama facilitator in schools
across Canada. Her research focuses on using drama, a multimodal literacy, to examine differences of race, class,
gender, and sexuality in multiracial schools. Her work exploring youth counternarratives and the complexities of
enacting social justice pedagogies in light of colonial experiences and racilization has been published in Race,
Ethnicity and Education, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, the Canadian Journal of Education, and
Social Justice.

Sean Wiebe, PhD (University of Prince Edward Island)
Sean Wiebe is a Professor of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island. He has been the principal
investigator on four Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded projects exploring the
intersections of creativity, the creative economy, language and literacies, and arts informed inquiries. His current
grant, based on findings generated from multiple sites across Canada, investigates how establishing a creative ethos
in schools might support teachers as contributors to Canada’s creative economy.

Simangele Mabena, PhD Candidate (University of British Columbia)
Simangele Mabena is interested in the intersection of Research-based Theatre and Deaf Studies, particularly in
exploring the pedagogical practices between Deaf and hearing teachers in Deaf education. Simangele aims to use
RbT as a form of inquiry to ultimately benefit key stakeholders in inclusive education with disabled teachers and
students. Through her involvement in the RBT Collaborative, she has undertaken the roles of performer-researcher,
facilitator and graduate research assistant. Simangele is currently a PhD candidate exploring the teaching practices
of D/deaf and hearing teachers in teaching emergent South African Sign Language literacy.

Stacey Cann, PhD Student (Concordia University)
Stacey Cann is an artist and researcher from Montreal, Canada. She is a PhD student in Art Education at Concordia
University. Cann has exhibited her work at the Art in Odd Places Festival in New York City,New York, The Works Art
and Design Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, and The Ministry of Casual Living in Victoria, British Columbia among
others. Her work involves durational elements whose mundane nature borders on the absurd, and she is interested in
how we present ourselves in the commonplace of our daily life.

Stefania Hernández, M.DES (Concordia University)
Stefania Hernández completed studies in architecture at Universidad del Zulia in 2016. In her B.Arch thesis, she
explored how the poetics of an architectural project could turn a forgotten coastal park into an urban rhizome, as a
way to engage the community with nature. She is keen on the idea of design as a catalyst for social integration, using
art and architecture as a way to transform issues into positive experiences, through the performed action moreover
than the outcome. This theme led her to further research in the Master of Design Program at Concordia University.
Her work is directed in the lines of approaching design in an interdisciplinary way, integrating art, poetics, and
architecture, always exploring the meaning of belonging and enhancing the positive and important qualities of the
built environment, and its intersection with nature and community.

Stephanie Leite, PhD Student (McGill University)
Stephanie is an educator, curriculum designer, and PhD student at the Department of Integrated Studies in Education
at McGill University. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she served as Director of Curriculum at Global Citizenship
Experience Lab School in Chicago, USA, where she helped develop a library of over 30 interdisciplinary, projectbased
courses. Her research focuses on the intersection of education for global citizenship, sustainable development,
and climate change. She is particularly interested in how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be
used to help define 21st-century learning.

Tejaswinee Jhunjhunwala, MA Student (Concordia University)
Tejaswinee Jhunjhunwala is a Masters student in the Graduate Program in Human Systems Intervention, Department
of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University and an Associate at Reos Partners, Montreal, Quebec.

Tetsuro Shigematsu (Playwright/Performer)
Tetsuro Shigematsu is a playwright/performer. A former writer for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, in 2004, he became the
first person-of-colour to host a daily national radio program in Canada, where he wrote and produced over 50 pieces
of radio drama. His solo-work, Empire of the Son, has played in 18 cities to over 20,000 people, and was described
by Colin Thomas as, “one of the best shows ever to come out of Vancouver. Ever.” 1 Hour Photo, was a finalist for
the 2019 Governor General's Award for Drama.

The ArtEGs* Art Collective (Concordia University)
The ArtEGs* Art Collective is a group of Artists, Teachers, and Researchers from Concordia University who come
together to share and create. The Collective aims to link art, education and research with various initiatives including
art exhibitions, talks/presentations, film screenings, publications, and more.
*Art Education Graduate Student Association, Concordia University
The Collective’s participating artists: Fatima Abbasi, Becky Cao, Zoe Compton, Shaghayegh Darabi, Nancy Long,
Denise A. Olivares, Leila Refahi, Shannon Roy, Lucine Serhan, Cristine Vista, Elsy Zavarce. (Please note: Éva Roy
and Sara Hanley are additional members of the Collective but at the time could not take part in this particular
exhibition.)

Theresa Chisanga, PhD (York University)
Theresa Chisanga: PhD (York University), is an Associate Professor of English Language at Walter Sisulu University
in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. She has been actively involved in transformative educational studies research
and is currently working with objects, in collaboration with a group of colleagues, researching social cohesion in
higher education institutions in the country.

Tone Pernille Østern, PhD (NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Tone holds a Doctor of Arts in Dance from the Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, and works a
Professor in Arts Education with a focus on Dance at NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She
also holds a position as Visiting Professor in Dance Education in Contemporary Contexts at Stockholm University of
the Arts. She is active as Artist/Researcher/Teacher, with a special interest in socially engaged (dance) art, dance in
dialogue with contemporary contexts, choreographic processeses, performative research and bodily learning.

Valérie Yobé, PhD (L’Université du Québec en Outaouais)
Valérie Yobé est professeure agrégée en design graphique à l’École multidisciplinaire de l’image (ÉMI) de l’Université
du Québec en Outaouais, où elle enseigne depuis 2001. Elle est Certified Registered Graphic Designer de la RGD –
Association of Registered Graphic Designers—Canada. En 2014, elle crée l’organisme à but non lucratif la tribu
grafik. Par des activités de commissariats, de collaborations au national et internationale, la tribu conceptualise et
produit des projets de recherche-création avec pour objectif de questionner les usages du design, décompartimenter
les pratiques, innover socialement et culturellement. En 2017, elle obtient une subvention du Fonds de recherche du
Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC), soutien à la recherche-création, pour le projet : « Graphisme citoyen :
pratiques artistiques et construction du lien social au sein de l'école primaire ». En 2009, il reçoit un prix au concours
international The So(cial) Good Design Awards 2020 de la RGD.

Warren Linds, PhD (Concordia University)
Warren Linds is Associate Professor, Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and
Graduate Program Director of the Masters in Human Systems Intervnetion. His research uses applied theatre to
address social justice issues. He was Co-Principal Investigator in the research intervention project Acting Out! But in
a Good Way, which linked well-being and the arts with Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan, Canada and is a coinvestigator
and member of a research network focusing on arts-based practice with war affected youth in Montreal.

Yuya Takeda, PhD Candidate (University of British Columbia)
Yuya Takeda is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Language and Literacy Education at University of British
Columbia. In his dissertation, Yuya studies conspiracy theories through philosophical and discourse analytic
approaches and speculates on how critical media literacy education can respond to them. He posits that rationalistic
debunking is not an effective way to teach conspiracy theories. Instead, he takes existentialist and critical pragmatist
stances and locates conspiracy theories in relation to cults and counter-culture movements. Yuya is also an
experimental street photographer. Please visit yuyapecotakeda.com for more information about his work.